For several years, San Bernardino County has been developing a Renewable Energy and Conservation Element (RECE) to add to its General Plan. It will guide all renewable-energy development on private county lands for decades to come. On August 8, 2017, the RECE comes to a vote before the Board of Supervisors. To see time and place of meeting, click here. The much-improved current RECE draft …

Another Developer Slow to Take the Hint Highway 247—up for consideration as a State Scenic Highway—moves northward through Lucerne Valley toward a small gap between the Granite Mountains and Ord Mountains. A precious wildlife corridor, it’s home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoise, and American badger, and at the crux of two BLM-designated Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. Some of this was once farmland, but the …

After a flood of public opposition, in 2015 the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) dismissed Southern California Edison’s application for the Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Project, which would have allowed 64 miles of new transmission lines to be built over fragile desert ecosystems and have cost upward of $1 billion. Critical to the CPUC’s decision was the fact that this boondoggle project wasn’t needed. Now SCE is …

The Alliance for Desert Preservation is actively opposing the Soda Mountain Solar Project, recently approved by the BLM despite vehement local opposition. The Alliance has begun a petitioning campaign in the High Desert to protest this egregious example of the federal government not listening to local input. Our elected representatives in San Bernardino County have already told the BLM that large, ugly, utility-scale energy projects …

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted 3–2 not to certify the Environmental Impact Report for the Soda Mountain project. This is a tremendous victory for the county, and for everyone who asked the county to stand up to the federal government, which had approved the project despite opposition from many corners. Supervisors JOSIE GONZALES and JANICE RUTHERFORD stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Supervisor ROBERT LOVINGOOD. …

The Alliance for Desert Preservation has been speaking out and petitioning against the Soda Mountain Solar Project, recently approved by the Bureau of Land Management. The project would cover almost 2,000 acres of desert land with solar panels and other equipment—right next to the entrance to the Mojave National Preserve. It would scrape the land bare of native vegetation. And—shockingly, in this time of prolonged drought—it …

Tired of seeing our beautiful desert spoiled with industrial-scale wind and solar projects? We have a great opportunity to speak up. This week San Bernardino County is running five “public outreach” meetings about renewable energy policy. There are good ways to make clean power WITHOUT more scarring of the desert and mountain slopes. Let’s tell the county that our desert home isn’t a dumping ground. The dates, …

To the thousands of people who spoke up against the Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Project—at meetings, and in letters and petitions: Great job! The California Public Utilities Commission is one step away from turning the project down. On April 20, 2015, the CPUC issued a Proposed Decision to deny the project, finding that the applicant, Southern California Edison, can no longer point to any viable evidence that …

Southern California Edison has long pleaded that it needed its proposed Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Project so that the Mojave Solar Project could reach “full deliverability.” Only problem: Now CAISO—the body in charge of planning for California’s transmission needs—says that Mojave Solar can reach full deliverability without Coolwater-Lugo. That’s not all. CAISO reports that some old generating units are going off-line, letting even more air out of …